After Sunday night’s game, in which the Oakland Raiders defeated the Denver Broncos 30-20 — by bullying them in the trenches — and the silver and black took the divisional lead at 7-2, Denver dropped to 6-3 and third place in the division.

The Raiders’ big boys up front bullied the Broncos at the line of scrimmage, blowing defenders off the ball and allowing Lattavius Murray to enjoy a heyday. Murray ran for 114 yards and three touchdowns while Oakland enjoyed 218 yards on the ground. Conversely, Denver couldn’t run the ball — or do much of anything on offense outside of Kapri Bibbs’ 69-yard screen and scamper to the end zone — and the Broncos couldn’t find a way to win in a huge, primetime game.

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Oakland, for now, sits in the driver’s seat of the West, which is the only division in the league in which three teams have won two-thirds of their games or more. And this week, they don’t have to worry about losing that No. 1 spot, as they’re on the bye.

Second in the West are the Kansas City Chiefs (6-2), who’ve gone through their bye week already and enjoyed a narrow 19-14 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. The Chiefs barely held on to win against the lowly Jaguars, partly due to missing five starters — Alex Smith and Spencer Ware were out with concussions, guard Patrick Ehinger was placed on IR, Jeremy Maclin injured a groin during the game and Travis Kelce was ejected — but a win is a win.

This week, the Chiefs have to go to Carolina to face the 3-5 Panthers, who are on a two-game winning streak following their bye, beating the Arizona Cardinals (30-20) and the LA Rams last week (13-10).

For Denver, the bye week can’t come soon enough. Not only can the offense not run the ball — 33 yards against Oakland — Trevor Siemian’s completion percentage has dropped consistently over the last five games. It’s not all his fault, it’s more on the offensive line, a unit that is not opening holes and not giving the QB enough time to make his progressions. Of course, missing Aqib Talib and Kayvon Webster hurt the defense, too, so the orange and blue are hoping they can both return this Sunday.

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The Broncos now have to travel to New Orleans for an early game against the high-scoring Saints (4-4). New Orleans has won their last two games, against Seattle (25-20) and then in San Francisco (41-23) over the sorry 49ers last Sunday. Drew Brees is playing at a phenomenal level once again, with nearly 2,700 yards passing to go with his 21 touchdowns and only five interceptions this year. Again, getting Talib and Webster back will be crucial for Denver this week.

Finally, it’s the San Diego Chargers, rounding things out at 4-5. San Diego almost allowed the Tennessee Titans to come back on them, but held off the opponents in the fourth quarter to win 43-35. Running back Melvin Gordon put on a display with a career day of 196 yards and two scores while Brandon Flowers’ pick-six of Marcus Mariota sealed the deal. The Bolts will host Miami (4-4) next, the winners of three straight. Their back, Jay Ajayi, has been sensational as of late, with 529 yards and four touchdowns rushing in the last three contests.